spademan

English

Etymology

spade +‎ -man

Noun

spademan (plural spademen)

1. Alternative form of spade man
   • 1784, Present state of husbandry in Scotland, page 97:

     The earth of this under stratum furrow a number of spademen threw into the old original furrow.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick; Or, The Whale:

     This spade is sharp as hone can make it; the spademan's feet are shoeless; the thing he stands on will sometimes irresistibly slide away from him, like a sledge.

   • 2018, J. Storer Clouston, Vandrad the Viking, page 119:

     All the chiefs and greater men landed with a sufficient number of spademen to assist them with the work, while the others lay off in the ships and watched in silence.